The honoured Patrons of the Bühnenfestspiele must not take it ill of either the author or the performers, if they do not acknowledge the marks of approbation most kindly bestowed on them by appearing before the curtain, as they have agreed to carry out this abnegation in order to present themselves before the public exclusively within the frame of the artwork represented by them.
Richard Wagner.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner to Emil Heckel, with a Brief History of the Bayreuth Festivals, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Grant Richards, 1899), No. 69